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AN 



ESSAY ON MAN; 



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POUH CPXSTZiSS 



TO 



H. St. JOHN, Lord Bolingbrose. 



TO WHICH IS ADDED. 



€tir Sluiijeroal |}r«iser. 



fix ALEXANDER POPE, £ea. 



HARTFORD . 

PUBLISHED BT SILAS A^DRUA- 



1834. 

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\ 

^ THE DESIGN. 



Having proposed to write some pieces on human life 
and maimers, ' such as (to use my Lord Bacon's expres- 
sion) come home to men's business and bosoms,' I thought 
it more satisfactory to begin with considering Man in the 
abstract, his nature and his state ; since, to prove any moral 
duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the i)er-r 
fection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is 
fiecessary first to know what condition and relation it is pla- 
ced in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being. 

The science of human nature is, like all other sciences, 
reduced to a few clear points : There are not many certain 
truths in this world. It is therefore in the anatomy of the 
mind, as in that of the body ; more good will accrue to man- 
kind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, 
than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, 
the conformation and uses of which will for ever escape our 
observation. The disputes are all upon these last ; and I 
will venture to say, they have less sharpened the wits than 
the hearts of men against each other, and have diminished 
the practice, more than advanced the theory, of morality. 
If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is 
in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly 
opposite, in passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and 



s? 



ir THE DESIGN'. 

in forming a temperate, yet not inconsistent, and a short, 
yet not imperfect, system of ethics. 

This I might have done in prose ; but I chose verse, and 
even rhyme, for two reasons. The one will appear obvi- 
ous ; that principles, maxims, or precepts, so written, both 
strike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily 
retained by him afterward. The other may seem odd, 
but it is true ; I found I could express them more shortly 
this way than in prose itself! and nothing is more certain 
than that much of the force, as well as grace of arguments 
or instructions, depends on their conciseness. I was unable 
to treat this part of my subject more in detail, without 
becoming dry and tedious ; or more poetically, without 
sacrificing perspicuity to ornament, without wandering 
from the precision, or breaking the chain of reasoning. If 
any man can unite all these without diminution of any 
of them, I freely confess he will compass a thing above 
my capacity. 

What is now published, is only to be considered as a 
general Map of Man^ marking out no more than the 
greater parts, their extent, their limits, and their connest' 
ion ; but leaving the particular to be more fully delineated 
in the charts which are to follow. Consequently, these 
Epistles in their progress (if I have health and leisure to 
make any progress) will be less dry, and more susceptible 
of poetical ornament. I am here only opening the foun- 
tains and clearing the passage : to deduce the rivers, to 
follow them in their course, and to observe their effects, 
fliay be a task more agieeable. 



THE DESIGN. v 

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I. 
Of the J^ature and State of Man, with respect to the 
Universe. 
OF Man in the abstract. — 1. That we can judge only 
with regard to our own system, being ignorant of the rela- 
tions of systems and things, ver. 17, &c. II. That man is 
not to be deemed imperfect^ but a being suited to his place 
and rank in the creation, agreeable to me general order 
of things, and conformable to ends and relations to him un- 
known, ver. 35, &c. III. That it is partly upon his igno- 
rance of future events, and partly upon the hope of a. future 
state, that all his happiness in the present depends, ver. 
77, &c. IV. The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and 
pretending to more perfection, the cause of man''s error and 
misery. The impiety of putting himself in the place 
of God, and judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection 
or imperfection, justice or injustice, of his dispensations, 
ver. 109, &c. V. The afisurrfi/^ of conceiting himself the 
final cause of the creation, or expecting that perfection in 
the moral world which is not in the natural, ver. 131, &c. 
VI. The unreasonableness of his complaints against Provi- 
dence, while on the one hand he demands the perfections 
of the angels, and on the other, the bodily qualifications of 
the brutes ; though, to possess any of the sensitive faculties 
in a higher degree, would render him miserable, ver. 173, 
&c. VII. That throughout the whole visible world, an 
universal order and gradation in the sensual and mental 
faculties is observed, which causes a subordination of crea- 
ture to creature, and of all creatures to man. The grada< 
lions of sense, instinct, thought, reflection, reason ; that rea- 
son alone countervails all the other faculties, ver. 207, 



\i THE DESIGN. 

VIII. How much farther this order and subordination of 
living creatures may extend, above and below us ; were 
*ny part of which broken, not that part only, but the 
whole comiected creation^ must be destroyed, ver. 233. IX. 
The extravagance, madness, and pride of such a desire, 
ver. 250. X. The consequence of all the absolute sub- 
mission^ due to providence, both as to our present and 
f^itture state, ver. 281, &c. to the end. 



ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE II. 

Of the Nature and State of Man^ with respect to himself as 
an Individual. 

I. The business of man not to pry into God^ but to 
study himself. His middle nature ; his powers a.Qd frailties^ 
ver. 1 fo 19. The limits of his capacity^ ver. 19, &c. 
11. The two principles of man, self-love and reason,, both ne- 
cessary, ver. 53, &c. Self-love the stronger^ and why, ver. 
67. &c. Their cnrf the same, ver. 81. &c. III. The pas- 
sions, and their use, ver. 93 to 130. The predominant pas- 
gion^ and its /orce, ver. 132 to 160. Its necessity^ in direct- 
ing men to different purposes, ver. 165, Szc. Its providential 
use ; in fixing our principle and ascertaining our virtue, 
ver. 177. IV. Virtue and rice joined in our mixedlnature ; 
the limits near, yet the things separate and evident. What 
19 the office of reason, ver. 202 io 216. V. How odious 
vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, ver. 
217* VI. Xliat, however, the ends of Providence and 
general good are answered in our passions and imperfec- 



THE DESIGN. vii 

iions, ver. 238, &c. How usefully these are distributed to 
all orders of mew, ver. 241. How useful they are to socie- 
/y, wr. 251. And to individuals, ver. 263. In every state, 
and every age of life, ver. 273, &c. 



ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III. 

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Society, 

I. Thf whole Universe one system oi society, ver. 7, &c. 
Nothing made wholly for itself nor yet wholly for ano- 
ther, ver. 27. The happiness of animals mutual, ver. 49. 
II. Reason or instinct operates alike to the good of each 
individual, ver. 79. Reason or instinct operates also to 
society, in all animals, ver. 109. III. How far society is 
carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by rea- 
son, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the state of 
nature, ver. 144. Reason instructed by instinct in the 
invention of arts, ver. 166, and in the fonns of society, ver. 
176. V. Origin of political societies, ver. 190. Origin of 
monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal government, ver. 212 
VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the same 
principle of love, ver. 231, &c. Origin of superstition and 
tyranny, from the same principle of fear, ver. 237. &:c. 
The influence of self-love operating to the social and pub- 
lic good, ver. 266. Restoration of true religion and go- 
vernment on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixt govern- 
ment, ver. 288. Various/orms of each, and the true end of 
all, ver. 300, &c. 



viii THE DESIGN. 

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV. 

Of the Nature and State of Man^ with respect to Happiness, 

I. False notions of Happiness, philosophical and po- 
pular, answered trom ver. 19 io 27. II. It is the end of all 
men, and attainable by all, vtr. 30. God intends happi- 
ness to be equal ; and to be so, it must be social, since all 
particular happiness depends on general, and since he 
governs by general, not particular laivs, ver. 37. As it is 
necessary for order^ and the peace and welfare of society, 
that external goods should be unequal, happiness is not 
made to consist in these, i;er. 51. But notwithstanding 
that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind 
is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope 
and /ear, ver. 70. III. What the happiness of individuals 
is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this 
world ; and that the good man has here the advantage^ 
ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only 
the calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 94. IV. The 
folly of expecting that God should alter his general laws 
in favour of particulars, ver. 121. V. That we are not 
judges w?/io are good; but that whoever they are, they 
must be happiest, ver. 133, &;c. VI. That external goods 
are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, 
or destructive of, virtue, ver. 167. That even these can 
make no man happj without virtue : Instanced in riches, 
ver. 183. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. Great- 
ness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver, 
259, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in men pos- 
sessed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That virtue only 



THE DESIGN. ix 

constitutes a happiness whose object is universal^ and 
whose prospect eternal^ ver. 309. That the perfection of 
Virtue and Happiness consists in a conformity to the order 
of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and here- 
after, ver, 326. 



Air 

^mm on M^ti. 



EPISTLE I. 

** AWAKE ! my St. John ! leave all meaner things 
To low ambition, and the pride of kings. 
Let us (since life can little more supply 
Than just to look about us and to die) 
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man ; 5 

A mighty maze I but not without a plan ; 
A wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot, 
Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit. 
Together let us beat this ample field, 
Try what the open, what the covert yield ; 10 

The latent tracts, the giddy heights explore 
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar ; 
Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, 
And catch the manners living as they rise ; 
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, 15 

But vindicate the ways of God to man. 

L Say first, of God above, or man below, 
What can we reason, but fi'om what we know? 
Of man what see we, but his station here. 
From which to reason, or to which refer ? 20 



ESSAY ON MAN. 11 

Tlwotigh worlds unnuinber'd, though the God be known, 

'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. 

He, who through vast immensity can pierce, 

See worlds on worlds compose one universe. 

Observe how system into system runs, 25 

What other planets circle other suns. 

What varied being peoples every star. 

May tell, why Heaven has made us as we are. 

But of this frame, the bearings and the ties. 

The strong connexions, nice dependencies, 30 

Gradations just, has thy pervading soul 

Look'd through ? Or, can a part contain the whole ? 
Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, 

And dra^\ n supports, upheld by God, or thee ? 

II. Presumptuous man ! the reason wouldst thou find, 35 
Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind ? 
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, 
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less I 
Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made 
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade ? 40 

Or ask of yonder argent fields above. 
Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove ? 

Of systems possible, if 'tis confest 
That wisdom infinite must form the best* 
Where all must full or not coherent be, 45 

And all that rises, rise in due degrep ; 
Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis o'ain, 
There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man ; 
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) 
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong ^ ' 50 



ir» ESSAY ON MAN. 

Respecting man, whatever wrong we call. 
May, must be right, as relative to all. 
In human works, though laboured on with pain, 
A thousand movements scarce one pui'pose gain ; 
In God's, one single can its end produce, 55 

Yet serves to second too some other use. 
So man, who here seems principal alone, 
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknovm, 
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal ; 
Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. 60 

When the proud steed shall know why man restrains 
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains ; 
When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod, 
Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god ; 
Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend 65 

His actions', passions', being's use and end ; 
Why doing, sufif'ring, check'd, impell'd ; and why 
This hour a slave, the next a deity. 

Then say not, man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault ; 
Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought ; 70 

His knowledge measur'd to his state and places 
His time a moment, and a point his space. 
If to be perfect in a certain sphere. 
What matter soon or late, or here or there ? 
The blest to-day, is as completely so, 75 

As who began a thousand years ago. 
/ III. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, 
f All but the page prescrib'd, their present state : 
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know; 
Or who could suffer being here below ? 80 

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 13 

llad he thy reason would he skip and play? 
' /Pleas 'd to the last, he crops the flowery food, 
' And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. 

O blindness to the future ! kindly giv'n, 05 

That each may fill the circle mark'd by HeaV'n ; 
I Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 

A hero perish, dr a sparrow fall, 
-, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd 

I ^And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90 

1 Hope humbly then ; with trembling pinions soar : 

Wait the great teacher, death, and God adore I 

What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, 

But gives that hope to be thy blessing now. 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast : 95 

Man never w, but always to be blest. 

The soul uneasy, and confin'd from home. 

Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 
li^ Lo I the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind 

Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; ►' 100 

His soul proud science never taught to stray 

Far as the solar walk, or milky way ; 

Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n. 

Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler HeaV'n ; 

Some safer world in depth oi woods embrac'd, 105 

Some happier island in the watVy waste. 

Where slaves once more their native land behold. 

No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold I 

To 6e, contents his natural desire. 

He asks no angel's wings, no seraph's fire ; 110 

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky. 

His faithfiil dog shall bear him company. 



14 ESSAY ON MAN. 

IV. Go, wiser thou ! and in thy scale of sense 
Weigh thy opinion against Providence ; 

Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such, 116 

Say, here he gives too little, there too much ; 

Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust ; 

Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust j 

If man alone engross not Heaven's high care, 

Alone made perfect here, immortal there ; 120 

Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, 

Re-judge his justice, be the god of God t 

In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies ; 
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. 
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 125 

Men would be angels, angels would be gods. 
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, 
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel ; 
And who but wishes to invert the laws 
Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 

V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, 
Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, " Tis for mine : 
" For me kind Nature wakes her genial power, 

" Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower ; 

" Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 135 

" The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew ; 

" For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings ; 

" For me, health gushes from a thousand springs ; 

" Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise ; 

"^My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.'* • 140 

But errs not nature from this gracious end, 
From burning suns when livid deattis descend, 
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep 

\ 



ESSAY ON MAN. 15 

Towns to one ^ave, whole nations to the deep ? 

" No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause 145 

" Acts not by partial, but by general laws ; 

" Th' exceptions few ; some change since all began : 

" And what created perfect ?" Why then man ? 

If the great end be human happiness, 

Then nature deviates : and can man do less ? 150 

As much that end a constant course requires 

Of showers and sunshine, as of man's desires ; 

As much eternal springs and cloudless skies, 

As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise. 

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's design, 

Why thea a Borgia or a Catiline ? 156 

J Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms, 

Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, 

Pours fierce ambition in a Cesar's mind, 
I Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind ? . 160 
I From pride, from pride, our very reas'niug springs ; 
[ Account for moral, as for nat'ral things : 

Why charge we Heav'n in those, in these acquit? 

In both, to reason right, is to submit. 

Better for us, perhaps it might appear, 165 

jfi were there all harmony, all virtue here ; 

That never air or ocean felt the wind ; 

That never passion discompos'd the mind ; 

But all subsists by elemental strife ; 

And passions are the elements of life. 170 

The gen'ral order, since the whole began, 
•^j,^^ Is kept in nature, and is kept in man. 
^ VI. What would this man ? now upward will he soar, 

And little less than angel, would be more ; 



16 ESSAY ON MAN. 

Now looking downward, just as griev'd appears 175 

To want the streng^th of bulls, the fur of bears. 

Made for his use all creatures if he call, 

Say what their use, had he the pow'rs of all ? 

Nature to these, without profusion kind, 

The proper organs, proper pow'rs assign'd ; 180 

Each seeming want compensated of course, 

Here, with degrees of swiftness, there, of force ; 

All in exact proportion to the state ; 

Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. 

Each beast, each insect, happy in its own ; 185 

Is heaven unkind to nan, and man alone ? 

Shall he alone, whom rational we call, 

Be pleas'd with nothing, if not bless'd with all? 

The bliss of man (coLild pride that blessing find) 
Is, not to act or think beyond mankind ; 190 

No pow'rs of body or of soul to share, 
But what his nature and his state can bear. 
Why has not man a microscopic eye ? 
For this plain reason — man is not a fly. 
Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 195 

T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n ? 
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, 
To smart and agonize at every pore ? 
Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, 
Die of a rose in aromatic pain ? 200 

If nature thunder'd in his opening ears, 
And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres. 
How would he wish that Heav'n had left him still 
The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill ? 
Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205 



ESSAY ON MAN. 17 

Alike in what it gives, and what denies ? 

VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, 
The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends : 
Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race, 

From the green myriads in the peopled grass : 210 

What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme. 

The mole's dim curtain and the lynx's beam : 

Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 

And hound sagacious on the tainted green : 

Of hearing, from the life tliat fills the flood, 215 

To that which warbles through the vernal wood 

The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine I 

Feels at each thread, and lives along the linfr : 

In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true, 

From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew ! 220 

How instinct vanes in the grov'ling swine, 

Compar'd, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine I 

'Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier I 

For ever sep'rate, yet for ever near ! 

Remembrance and reflection how ally'd ! 225 

What thin partitions sense from thought divide I 

And middle natures how they long to join, 

Yet never pass'd th' insuperable line ! 

Without this just gradation, could they be 

Subjected these to those, or all to thee ? 230 

The powers of all subdu'd by thee alone, 

Is not thy reason all these powers in one ? 

VIII. See through this air, this ocean, and this earth. 
All matter quick, and bursting into birth. 

Above, how high progressive life may go ! 235 

Around, how wide I how deep extend below ! 

2* 



18 ESSAY ON MAN. 

Vast chain of being I which from God began, 

Nature's ethereal, human, angel, man, 

Beast, bird, fish, insect ! what no eye can see. 

No glass can reach ; from infinite to thee ; 240 

From thee to nothing — On superior pow'rs 

Were we to press, inferior might on ours : 

Or in the full creation leave a void, 

Wh re. one steii broken, the g eat scale's destroy'd : 

From nature's chain whatever link you strike, 245 

Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 

And if each system in gradation roll. 
Alike essential to the amazing whole ; 
The least confusion but in one, not all 
That system only, but the whole must fall. 250 

Let earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly. 
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky ; 
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd, 
Being on being wreckM, and world on world ; 
Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255 

And nature tremble, to the throne of God : 
All this dread order break — For whom ? For thee ? 
Vile worm I O madness I pride I impiety ! 

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread. 
Or hand to toil, aspir'd to be the head ? 260 

What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd 
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind. 
Just as absurd for any part to claim 
To be another in this gen'ral frame : 
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains 265 

The great directing Mind of all ordains. 
' " All are but parts of one stupendous whole. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 19 

Whose body nature is, and God the soul ; 

That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same ; 

Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame ; 270 

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 

Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ; 

Lives through all life, extends through all extent ; 

Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; 

Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 275 

As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart ; 

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, 

As the rapt seraph that adores and burns : 

To him, no high, no low, no great, no small : 

He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. 280 

X. Cease then, nor order imperfection name : 
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. 
Know thy own point : this kind, this due degree 
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee. 
Submit. — In this, or any other sphere, 285 

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear : 
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r, 
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. 
All nature is but art, unknown to thee ; 
AH chance, direction, which thou canst not see ; 290 

All discord, harmony, not understood : 
All partial evil, universal good : 
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, 
One truth is clear, Whatever w, is right. 



20 ESSAY ON MAN. 

EPISTLE II. 

/ I. KNOW then thyself, presume not God to scan I 
vThe proper study of mankind is man. 
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, ■ 
A being darkly wise, and rudely great : 
With too much knowledge for the sceptic's side, 5 

With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, 
He hangs between : in doubt to act or rest ; 
In doubts to deem himself a god or beast ; 
In doubt his mind or body to prefer, 
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err ; 10 

Alike in ignorance, his reason such, 
Whether he thinks too little or too much : 
Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd ; 
Still by himself abus'd or disabus'd ; 
Created half to ri?e, and half to fall ; 15 

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all ; 
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd ; 
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world ! 

Go, wondrous creature ! mount where science guides* 
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and taste the tides ; 20 

Instruct the planets in what orbs to run. 
Correct old time, and regulate the sun ; 
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere. 
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair ; 
Or tread the mazy round his foll'wers trod, 25 

And quitting sense, call imitating God ; 
As eastern priests in giddy circles run, 
And turn their heads to imitate the sun. 
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule — 



ESSAY ON MAN. 21 

Then drop into thyself, and be a fool ! 30 

Superior beings, when of late they saw 
A mortal man unfold all nature's law, 
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape, 
And show'd a Newton as we show an ape. 
- Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind, 35 

Describe or fix one movement of his mind ? 
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend, 
Explain his own begimiing, or his end ? 
Alas, what wonder 1 man's superior part 
Unchecked may rise, and climb from art to art : 40 

But when his own ^eat work is but begun. 
What reason weaves, by passion is undone. ■^"' 

Trace science, then, with modesty thy gxiide ; 
First strip off all her equipage of pride; 
Deduct what is but vanity, or dress, 45 

Or learning's luxury, or idleness ; 
Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain, 
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain ; 
Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts 
Of all our vices have created arts : 50 

Then see how little the remaining sum, 
Which serv'd the past, and must the times to cornel 

II. Two principles in human nature reign; ^^ 
Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain ; C--^ ^ 

Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, 55 

Each works its end, to move or govern all : 
And to their proper operation still, 
Ascribe all good ; to their improper, ill. 

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul ; 
Reason's coiiujaring balance rules the whole. 60 



22 ESSAY ON MAN. 

Man, but for that, no action could attend, 

And, but for this, were active to no end ; 

Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, 

To draw nutrition, propagate and rot ; 

Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void, 65 

Destroying others, by himself destroyed. 

Most strength the moving principle requires ; 

Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires. 

Sedate and quiet the comparing lies, 

Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advise. 70 

Self-love still stronger, as its object's nigh ; 

Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie : 

That sees immediate good by present sense ; 

Reason, the future, and the consequence. 

Thicker than arguments, temptations throng ; 75 

At best more watchful this, but that more strong. 

The action of the stronger to suspend, 

Reason still use, to reason still attend : 
Attention, habit and experience gains. 
Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. 80 

Let subtle school-men teach these friends to fight, 
More studious to divide than to unite ; 
And grace and virtue, sense and reason split, 
With all the rash dexterity of wit. 

Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85 

Have full as oft no meaning, or the same. 
Self-love and reason to one end aspire. 
Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire : 
But greedy that, its object would devour, 
This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r : 90 

Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood. 



ESSAY OM MAN. , 23 

Our greatest evil or our greatest good. 
III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call ; 

'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them aU ; 

But since not ev'ry good we can divide, 95 

And reason bids us for our own provide, 

Passions, though selfish, if their means be fau', 

List under reason, and deserve her care ; 
I Those, that imparted, court a noble aim, 
I Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name. 100 

I In lazy apathy let stoics boast 

Their virtue fix'd ; 'tis fixed as in a frost ; 
■ Contracted all, retiring to the breast ; 

But strength of mind is exercise, not rest ; 

The rising tempest puts in act the soul, 105 

Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole. 
/ On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, 
j Reason the card, but passion is the gale ; 

Nor God alone in the still calm we find, 

He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. 110 

Passions, like elements, though born to fight, 

Yet, mix'd and soften'd, in his work unite : 

These 'tis enough to temper and employ ; 
I But what composes man, can man destroy : 

Suffice that reason keep to nature's road, 115 

Subject, compound them, follow her and God. 

Love, hope and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, 

Hate, fear and grief, the family of pain ; 

These mix'd w'^ h art, and to due bounds connn'd, 

Make and maintain the balance of the mind : 250 

The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife 

Gives all the stren2;th and colour of our life. 



i^ 



24 ESSAY ON MAN. 

Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes. 
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise : 
Present to gi'asp, and future still to find, 125 

The whole employ of body and of mind. 
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike ; 
On difl'rent senses diffVent objects strike ; 
Hence different passions more or less inflame, 
As strong or weak, the organs of the frame : 130 

And hence one master passion in the breast. 
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest. 

As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, 
Receives the lurking principle of death ; 
The young disease, that mast subdue at length, 135 

Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength ; 
So, cast and mingled with his very frame, 
The mind's disease its ruling passion came: 
Each vital humour which should feed the whole. 
Soon flows to this in body and in soul. 140 

Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head. 
As the mind opens, and its functions spread. 
Imagination plies her dang'rous art. 
And pours it all upon the peccant part. 

Nature its mother, habit is its nurse ; 146 

Wit. spirit, faculties, but make it worse ; 
Reason itself but gives it edge and powV ; 
As heav'n's blest beam turns vinegar more sour. 
We, wretched subjects, though to lawful sway, 
In this weak queen, some favVite still obey. 150 

Ah ! if she lend not arms, as well as rules, 
What can she more than tell us we are fools ? 
Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend ; 



LSSAY ON MAN. 25 

A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend I 

Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade 155 

The choice we make, or justify it made ; 

Proud of an easy conquest all along, 

She but removes weak passions for the strong. 

So, when small humours gather to a gout, 

The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out. 160 

Yes, nature's road must ever be preferr'd : 

Reason is here no guide, but still a guard : 

'Tis her's to rectify, not overthrow, 

And treat this passion more as friend t]^an foe : 

A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends, 165 

And sev'ral men impels to sev'ral ends. 

Like varying winds, by other passions tost, 

This drives them constant to a certain coast. 

Let pow'r, or knowledge, gold or glory please, 

Or oft (more stong than all) the love of ease ; 170 

Through life 'tis follow'd, ev'n at life's expense •, 

The merchant's toil, the sages indolence, 

The monk's humility, the hero's pride. 

All, all alike, find reason on their side. 

Th' eternal art, educing good from ill, 175 

Grafts on this passion our best principle : 
'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd, 
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd ; 
The dross cements what else were too refin'd, 
And in one int'rest body acts with mind. 180 

As fruits ungrateful to the planter's care, 
On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear ; 
The surest virtues thus from passions shoot, 
^^"ild nature's vigour working at the root, 

3 



26 ESSAY ON MAN. 

What crops of wit and honesty appear 185 

From spleen, from obstinacy, hate or fear I 

See anger, zeal and fortitude supply ; 

Ev'n avarice, prudence ; sloth, philosophy ; 

Lust, thi'ough some certain strainers well refined, 

Is gentle love, and charms all womankind : 190 

Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, 

Is emulation in the learn'd or brave : 

Nor virtue, male or female, can we name, 

But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame. 

Tlius nature gives us (let it check our pride) 195 

The virtue nearest to our vice ally'd ; 
Reason the bias turns to good from ill, 
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will. 
The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline, 

In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine. 200 

The same ambition can destroy or save. 
And makes a patriot as it makes a Iniave. 

VI. This light and darkness in our chaos join'd, 
What shall divide ? The God within the mind. 

Extremes in nature equal ends produce, 205 

In man they join to some mysterious use ; 
Though each by turns the other's bounds invade, 
As in some well-wrought picture, light and shade t 
And oft so mixt, the difference is too nice 
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. 210 

Fools I who from hence into the notion fall, 
That vice or virtue there is none at all. 
If white and black blend, soften and unite 
A thousand ways, is there no black or white ? 
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain ; 215 



ESSAY ON MAN. 27 

'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain. 

V. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 

«-r-\Ve iirst endure, then pity, then embrace. 220 

But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed ; 
Ask Where's the North ? at York, 'tis on tlie Tweed : 
In Scotland, at the Orcades ; and there, 
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. 
No creature owns it in the first degree, 225 

But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he 
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone, 
Or never feel the rage, or never own ; 
What happier natures shrink at with affright, 
The hard inhabitant contends is right. 230 

VI. Virtuous and vicious every man must be, 
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree ; 
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise, 
And ev'n the best, by fits, what they despise. 

'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill, 235 

For, vice or virtue, self directs it still ; 

Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal ; 

But Heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole : 

That counter- works each folly and caprice ; 

That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice : 240 

That happy frailties to all ranks apply'd. 

Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride. 

Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief. 

To kings presumption, and to crowds belief : 

That virtue's ends from vanity can raise, 245 

Which seeks no int'rest, no reward but praise ; 



^8 ESSAY ON MAN. 

And build on wants, and on defects of mind, 
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind. 

Heav'n, forming each on other to depend, 
A master, or a servant, or a friend, 250 

Bids each on other for assistance call, 
Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. 
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally 
The common int'rest, or endear the tie. 
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255 

Each home-felt joy that life inherits here : 
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline. 
Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign : 
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay. 
To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 260 

Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, 
Not one will change his neighbour with himself. 
The learned is happy nature to exploi'e. 
The fool is happy that he knows no more ; 
The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n, 265 

The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n. 
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing, 
The sot a hero, 1 inatic a king ; 
The starving chymist in his golden views 
Supremely blest, the poet in his muse. 270 

See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend, 
And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend ; 
See some fit passion evVy age supply, 
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. 

Behold the child, by nature s kindly law, 276 

Fleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw : 
Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 

A little louder, but as empty quite ; 
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage ; 
And beads and pray'r-books ai'e the toys of age : 
Fleas'd with this bauble still, as that before ; 
Till tir'd he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er I 
Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays 
Those painted clouds that beautify our days ; 
Each want of happiness by hope supply'd ; 
And each vacuity of sense by pride : 
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy ; 
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy ; 
One prospect lost, another still we gain ; 
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain ; 
Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine. 
The scale to measure others' wants by thine. 
See I and confess one comlbrt still must rise ; 
'Tis this, though man's a fool, yet God is wise. 



EPISTLE III. 

HERE tlien we rest : " The universal cause 
" Acts to one end, but acts by various laws." 
In all the madness of superfluous health, 
The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth, 
Let this great truth be present night and day ; 
But most be present, if we preach or pray. 

I. Look round our world ; behold the chain of love 
Combining all below and all above. 
See plastic nature working to this end, 



30 ESSAY ON MAN. 

The single atoms each to other tend, 10 

Attract, attracted too, the next in place 

Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to emhrace. 

See matter next, with various life endu'd, 

Press to one centre still, the gen'ral good. 

See dying vegetables life sustain, 15 

See life dissolving vegetate again : 

All forms that perish other forms supply, 

(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die ;) 

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, 

They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 20 

Nothing is foreign ; parts relate to whole ; 

One all-extending, all-preserving soul 

C/onnects each being, greatest with the least ; 

Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast ; 

All serv'd, all serving : nothing stands alone ; 25 

The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown. 

Has God, thou fool ! work'd solely for thy good. 
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food ? 
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, 
For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn 30 

Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings ? 
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. 
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat ? 
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note. 
The bounding steed you pompously besti'ide, 35 

Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. 
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain ? 
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain. 
Thine the full harvest of the golden year f 
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer : 40 



ESSAY ON MAN. 31 

The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call, 
Lives on the labours of this lord of all. 

Know, nature's children all divide her care ; ^ 

The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear. I/" 
While man exclaims, " See all things for my use '" 45 
" See man for mine ?" replies a pamper'd goose : 
And just as short of reason he must fall, 
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all. 

Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control, 
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole : 50 

Nature that tyrant checks ; he only knows. 
And helps, another creature's wants and woes. 
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, 
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove ? 
Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings ? 55 

Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings ? 
Man cares for all : to birds he gives his woods, 
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods ; 
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide, 
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride : fiO 

All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy 
The extensive blessing of his luxury. 
That very life his learned hunger craves. 
He saves from famine, from the savage saves : 
Nay, feasts the animal, he dooms his feast, 65 

And, till he ends the being, makes it blest ; 
Which sees no more the stroke, rior feels the pain, 
Than favour'd man by touch ethereal slain : 
The creature had his feast of life before ; 
Thou too must perish when thy feast is o'er. 7U 

To each unthinking being, Hcav'n, a friend, 



32 ESSAY ON MAN. 

Gives not the useless kno\vleclp"e of its end ; 

To man imparts it ; but with such a view 

As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too : 

Tlie hour concealVl, and so remote the fear, 15 

Death still draws nearer, never seeming' near. 

Great standing miracle I that Heav'n assign'd 

Us only thinking thing this turn of mind. 

II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blest, 
Know, all enjoy that power which suits them best : 80 
To bliss alike by that direction tend, 
And find the means proportioned to their end. 
Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide, 
What pope or council can they need beside .'* 
Reason, however able, cool at best, 85 

Cares not for sei'vice, or but serves when prest. 
Stays till we call, and then not often near I 
But honest instinct comes a volunteer ; 
Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit, 
While still too wide or short is human wit ; 90 

Sure by quick nature happiness to gain, 
Which heavier reason labours at in vain. 
This too serves always. Reason never long ; 
One must go right, the other may go wrong. 
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs, 95 

One in their nature, which are two in our's; 
And reason raise o'er instinct as you can, 
In this 'tis God directs, and that 'tis man. 

Who taught the nations of the field and wood 
To shun their poison, and to choose their food .'' 100 

Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand. 
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ? 



ESSAY ON MAN. S3 

"Who made the spider parallels design, 

Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line ? 

Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 105 

Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 

Who calls the council, states the certain day ? 

Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ? 

III. God, in the nature of each being, founds 
Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds : 110 

But, as he fram'd the whole, the whole to bless, 
On mutual wants built mutual happiness : 
So from the first, eternal order ran, 
And creature link'd to creature, man to man. 
Whatever of life all-quick'ning ether keeps, 115 

Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, 
Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds 
The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds. 
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood, 
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood, 120 

Each loves itself, but not itself alone, 
Each sex desires alike, till two are one. 
Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace ; 
They love themselves, a third time, in their race. 
A Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 125 

The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend ; 
The young dismiss'd to wander earth or air, 
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care ; 
The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace, 
Another love succeeds, another race. 130 

A longer care man's helpless kind demands ; 
That longer care contracts more lasting bands. 
Reflection, reason, still the ties improve, 



34 ESSAY ON MAN. 

At once extend the int'rest and the love ; 

With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn ; 135 

Each virtue in each passion takes its turn; 

And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise, 

That graft benevolence on charities. 

Still as one brood, and as another rose, 

These nat'ral love maintain'd, habitual those : 140 

The last, scarce ripen'd into perfect man, 

Saw helpless him from whom their life began : 

Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage, 

That pointed back to youth, this on to age ; 

While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combin'd, 145 

Still spread the int'rest, and preserv'd the kind. 

IV. Nor think, in nature's state they blindly trod ; 
The state of nature was the reign of God : 
Self-love and social at her birth began, 
Union the bond of all things, and of man. 150 

Pride then was not ; nor arts, that pride to aid : 
Man walk'd with beast, joint tenant of the shade ; 
The same his table, and the same his bed ; 
No murder cloth'd him, and no murder fed. 
Ill the same temple, the resounding wood, 155 

All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God : 
The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest, 
Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest : 
Heaven's attribute was universal care, 
And man's prerogative, to rule, but spare. 160 

Ah I how unlike the man of times to come I 
Of half that live, the butcher, and the tomb ; 
Who, foe to nature, hears the gen'ral groan, 
Murder,* their species, and betrays his own. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 35 

But just disease to luxury succeeds, 165 

And every death its o^vTl avenger breeds ; 
The fury passions from that blood began, 
And turn'd on man a fiercer savage, man. 

See him from nature rising slow to art I 
To copy instinct then was reason's part ; ITO 

Thus then to man the voice of nature spake — 
*' Go, from the creatures thy instruction take : 
" Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield ; 
" Learn from the beasts the physic of the field ; 
" Thy arts of building from the bee receive ; 175 

'• Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave : 
♦' Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 
*' Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. 
" Here too all forms of social union find, 
" And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind : 180 

I " Here subterranean works and cities see ; 
" There towns aerial on the waving tree. 
" Learn each small people's genius, policies, 
"• The ant's republic, and the realm of bees ; 
" How those in common all their wealth bestow, 185 

" And anarchy without confusioii know ; 
" And these for ever, though a monarch reign, 
" Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain. 
" Mark what unvary'd laws preserves each state, 
" Laws wise as nature, and as fix'd as fate. 190 

" In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, 
" Entangle justice in her net of law, 
" And right, too rigid, harden into wrong ; 
i' Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. 
"Yet go! and thus o''er all the creatures sway, 195 



56 ESSAY ON MAN. 

" Thus let the wiser make the rest obey : 
" And for those arts mere instinct could afford, 
" Be crown'd as monarchs, or as gods ador'd." 

V. Great Nature spoke ; observant man obey'd ; 
Cities were built, societies were made : 200 

Here rose one little state ; another near 
Grew by like means, and join'd tiirough love or fear. 
Did here the trees with ruddier burthens bend, 
And there the streams in purer rills descend ? 
What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, 205 

And he return'd a friend, who came a foe. 
Converse and love, mankind might strongly draw, 
When love was liberty, and nature law. 
Thus states were form'd ; the name of king unknown, 
Till common intVest plac'd the sway in one. 210 

'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms, 
Diffusing blessings, or averting harms,) 
The same which in a sire the sons obey'd, 
A prince the father of a people made. 214 

VI. Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch sate 
King, priest, and parent, of his growing state: 
On him, their second providence, they hung, 
'ilieir law his eye, their oracle his tongue. 
He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food. 
Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 220 

Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound, 
Or fetch- the aerial eagle to the ground ; 
Till drooping, sick'ning, dying, they began 
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as man : 
Then, looking up from sire to sire, explor'd 225 

One great, first Father, and that f;r«t ador'd. 



ESSAY ON MAN. 37 

Or plain tradition, that this All begun, 

Convey'd unbroken faith from sire to son ; 

The worker from the work distinct was known, 

And simple reason never sought but one : 230 

Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light, 

Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right 

To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, 

And own'd a father when he own'd a God. 

Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then ; 235 

For nature knew no right divine in men : 

No ill could fear in God ; and understood 

A sovereign being, but a sovereign good. 

True faith, true policy, united ran. 

That was but love of God, and this of man. 240 

Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realms undone, 
Th' enormous faith of many made for one ; 
That proud exception to all nature's laws, 
T' invert the world, and counter-work its cause ? 
Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law ; 245 
Till superstition taught the tyrant awe. 
Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid, 
And gods of conqu'rors, slaves of subjects made : 
She, 'midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound, 
"When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground- 
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, 251 

To power unseen, and mightier far than they : 
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies. 
Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise ; 
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes ; 255 

Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods ; 
Gods partial, changeful, passionate, uniust. 

4 



38 ESSAY ON MAN, 

j Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust 
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, 
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260 

Zeal then, not charity, became the guide, 

'5 And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. 
Then sacred seem'd th' ethereal vault no more, 
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore : 
Then first the Flamen tasted living food ; 265 

Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood, 
With heav'n's own thunder shook the world below, 
And play'd the god an engine on his foe. 

So drives self-love, through just, and through unjust. 
To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust : 270 

The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause 
Of what restrains him, government and laws. 
For, what one likes, if others like as well, 
What serves one will, when many wills rebel, 
How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, 275 

A weaker may surprise, a stronger take ? 
His safety must his liberty restrain : 
All join to guard what each desires to gain. 
ForcM into virtue thus, by self-defence, 
E'en kings learn'd justice and benevolence : 280 

Self-love forsook the path it first pursu'd, 
And found the private in the public good. 

'Twas then the studious head, or gen'rous mind, 
Follower of God, or friend of human kind, 
Poet or patriot, rose but to restore 285 

The faith and moral nature gave before ; 
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new ; 
If not God's image, yet his shadow drew : 



ESSAY ON MAN. 39 

Taught power's due use to people and to kings, 

Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 

The less, or greater, set so justly true, 

Tliat touching one must strike the other too; 

Till jarring interests of themselves create 

Th' according music of a well mix'd state. 

Such is the world's great harmony, that springs 295 

From order, union, full consent of things : 

Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made 

To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade ; 

More powerful each as needful to the rest, 

And, in proportion as it blesses, blest ; 300 

Draw to one point, and to one centre bring 

Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king. 

For forms of government let fools contest ; 
Whate'er is best administer'd is best : 
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; 305 

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right : 
In faith and hope the world will disagree, 
But all mankind's concern is charity : 
All must be false that thwarts this one great end, 
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 310 

Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives ; 
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives. 
On their own axis as the planets run, 
Yet make at once their circle round the sun ; 
So two consistent motions acts the soul ; 31» 

And one regards itself, and one the whole. 

Thus God and nature link'd the general frame^ 
And bade self-love and social be the same. 



40 ESSAY ON MAN. 

EPISTLE IV. 

O Happiness ! our being's end and aim ; 

Good, pleasure, ease, content ! whate'er thy name : 

That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, 

For which we bear to live, or dare to die, 

Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 

O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool and wise, 

Plant of celestial seed ; if dropt below, 

Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow ? 

Fair op'ning to some courts propitious shine. 

Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine ? 10 

Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, 

Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field ? 

Where grows ? — where grows it not ? — if vain our toil, 

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil : 

Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere, 15 

'Tis nowhere to be found, or ev'ry where : 

'Tis never to be bought, but always free. 

And, fled from monarchs, St. John ! dwells with thee. 

Ask of the learn'd the way ? The learn'd are blind ; 
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind ; 20 

Some place the bliss in action, some in ease. 
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these ; 
Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain ; 
Some, swell'd to gods, confess e'en virtue vain ; 
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25 

To trust in every thing, or doubt of all. 

Who thus define it, say they more or less 
Than this. That happiness is happiness ? 



ESSAY ON MAN. 41 

Take Nature's path, and mad Opinions leave -. 
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive ; 30 

Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell ; 
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well ; 
And, mourn our various portions as we please, 
Equal is common sense, and common ease. 

Remember, man, " the Universal Cause 35 

** Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws ;" 
And makes what happiness we justly call. 
Subsist not in the good of one, but all. 
There's not a blessing individuals find. 
But some way leans and hearkens to the kind : 40 

No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride. 
No cavern'd hermit, rests self-satisfied ; 
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, 
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend : 
Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 

All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink : 
Each has his share ; and who would more obtain, 
Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain. 

ORDER is Heaven's first law ; and this confest, 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 

More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence 
That such are happier, shocks all common sense. 
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess, 
If all are equal in their happiness ; 

But mutual wants this happiness increase ; 55 

All nature's dijff'rence keeps all nature's peace. 
Condition, circumstance is not the thing ; 
Bliss is the same in subject or in king. 
In who obtain defence, or who defend. 

4^ 



42 ESSAY ON MAN. 

lu him who is, or him who finds a friend : 60 

Heaven breathes through ev'ry member of the whole 
One common blessing, as one common soul. 
But fortune's gifts, if each alike possest, 
. And each were equal, must not all contest ? 
If then to all men happiness were meant, 65 

God in externals could not place content. 

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, 
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those ; 
^ But Heaven's just balance equal will appear, 
While those are placed in hope, and these in fear : 70 

Not present good or ill, the joy or curse, 
But future views of better, or of worse. 

O sons of earth ! attempt ye still to rise. 
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies ? 
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, 7^ 

And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. 

Know, all the good that individuals find. 
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind. 
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, 
y Lie in three words, health, peace and competence. 80 
But health consists with temperance alone ; 
And peace, O virtue I peace is all thy own. 
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain ; 
But these less taste them, as they ■\yorse obtain. 
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 85 

Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right ? 
Or vice or virtue, whether blest or curst, 
Which meets contempt, or which compassion first .•" 
Count all th' advantage prosp'rous vice attains, 
'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains : 90 



ESSAY ON MAN. 43 

And grant the bad what happinees they would, 

One they must want, which is to pass for good. 

O blind to truth, anJ God's whole scheme below, 

Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue wo ! 

Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95 

Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest. 

But fools, the good alone, unhappy call, 

For ills or accidents that chance to all. 

See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just 

See goodlike Turenne prostrate on the dust ! 100 

See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife I 

Was this their virtue, or contempt of life ? 

Say, was it virtue, more though Heav'n ne'er gave» 

Lamented Digby ! sunk thee to the grave ? 

Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, 105 

Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire ? 

Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath. 

When nature sicken'd, and each gale was death ? 

Or why so long (in life if long can be) 

Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me ? 110 

What makes all physical or moral ill ? 
There deviates nature, and here wanders will, 
God sends not ill, if rightly understood, 
Or partial ill is universal good. 

Or change admits, or nature lets it fall, 115 

Short, and but rare, till man improv'd it all. 
We just as wisely might of heav'n complaia 
That righteous Abel was destroy'd by Cain, 
As that the virtuous son is ill at ease 
When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120 

Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal Cause 



44 ESSAY ON MAN. 

Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, 
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires ? 
On air or sea new motions be imprest, 125 

O blameless Bethel I to relieve thy breast ? 
When the loose mountain trembles from on high, 
Shall gravitation cease, if you go by ? 
Or some old temple, nodding to its fall. 
For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall ? 130 

V. But still this world (so fitted for the knave) 
Contents us not. A better shall we have ? 
A kingdom of the just then let it be : 
But first consider how those just agree. 
The good must merit God's peculiar care ; 135 

But who, but God, can tell us who they are ? 
One thinks on Calvin Heaven's own spirit fell, 
Another deems him instrument of hell ; 
If Calvin feel Heaven's blessing, or its rod, 
' This cries, there is, and that, there is no God. 140 

What shocks one part will edify the rest, 
Nor with one system can they all be blest ; 
The very best will variously incline. 
And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. 

" Whatever is, is right." — This world, 'tis true, 145 
Was made for Caesar — but for Titus too : 
And which more blest ? Who chain'd his country, say, 
Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day ? 

" But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed." 
What then ? Is the reward of virtue bread .'' , 150 

That, vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil ; 
The knave deserves it, when he tills the soil. 
The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main, 



ESSAY ON MAN. 45 

Where folly fights for king;s, or dives for gain. 

The good man may be weak, be indolent ; 155 

Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. 

But grant him riches, your demand is o'er ? 

*^No : shall the good want health, the good want power ?*' 

Add healtli and power, and ev'ry earthly thing ; 

" Why bounded pow'r ? why private ? why no king ? 160 

* Nay, why external for internal giv'n ? 

" Why is not man a God and earth a heav'n ?" 

Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive 

God gives enough, while he has more to give ; 

Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand ; 165 

Say, at what part of nature will they stand? 

What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, 
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy, 
Is virtue's prize : a better would you fix ? 
Then give humility a coach and six, 170 

Justice a conqu'ror's sword, or truth a gown, 
Or public spirit, its great cure, a crown. 
Weak, foolish man I will Heav'n reward us there 
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here ? 
The boy and man an individual makes, 175 

Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes ? 
Go, like the Indian, in another life, 
Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife ; 
As well as dream such trifles are assign'd, 
As toys and empires for a godlike mind. 180 

Rewards, that either would to virtue bring 
No joy, or be destructive of the thing ; 
How oft by these at sixty are undone 
The virtues of a saint at twenty-one. 



V 



4fi ESSAY ON MAN. 

\ y To whom can riches give repute, or trust, 185 

Content or pleasure, but the good and just ? 
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; 
Esteem and love were never to be sold. 
O fool ! to think God hates the worthy mind, 
The lover and the love of human kind, 190 

Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear. 
Because he wants a thousand pounds a year. 

Honour and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part, there all the hojiour lies. 
Fortune in men has some small diff'reuce made, 195 

One flaunt in rags, one flutters in brocade ; 
The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd, 
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd. 
*' What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl f 
111 tell you, friend I a wise man and a fool. 200 

Youll find, if once the monarch acts the monk, 
J Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk, 
W^orth makes the man, and want of it the fellow: 
The rest is all but leather or prunello. 

Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, 205 
That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings. 
Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race, 
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece : 
But by your fathers' worth if your's you rate, 
Count me those only who were good and great. 210 

Go I if your ancient, but ignoble blood 
Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood 
Go ! and pretend your family is young I 
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long. 
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards ? 215 



V 



ESSAY ON MAN. 47 

x\la3 1 not all the blood of all the Howards. 

Look next on greatness ; say where greatness lies ? 
" Where, but among the heroes and the wise !" 
Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed, 
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede ; 220 

The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find 
Or make an enemy of all mankind ! 
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes, 
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose. 
No less alike the politic and wise ; 225 

All sly-slow things, with circumspective eyes : 
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take. 
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. 
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat ; 
'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great : 230 

Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave. 
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. 
Wlio noble ends by noble means obtains, 
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains. 
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed 235 

Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. 

What's fame ? a fancy'd life in others' breath, 
A thing beyond us, e'en before our death. 
Just what you hear, you have, and what's unknown 
The same (my Lord) if Tully's or your own. 240 

All that we feel of it begins and ends 
In the small circle of our foes or friends ; 
To all beside as much an empty shade 
An Eugene living, as a Csesar dead ; 

Alike or when, or where they shone or shine, 245 

Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine. 



ESSAY ON MAN, 



A wit's a feather, and a chiefs a rod ; ^i^ 
An honest man's the noblest work of God. ) 
Fame but from death a villain's name can save, 
As justice tears his body from the grave ; 
When what t' oblivion better were resign'd, 
Is hung on high, to poison half mankind. 
All fame is foreign, but of true desert ; 
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart : 
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas ; 
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels, 
Than Caesar with a senate at his heels. 

In parts superior what advantage lies ? 
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise ? 
'Tis but to know how little can be known ; 
To see all others' faults, and feel our own ; 
Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge, C 

Without a second, or without a judge : , ) 

Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land .'' 265 

All fear, none aid you, and few understand. 
Painful pre-eminence I yourself to view 
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too. 

Bring then these blessings to a strict account; 
Make fair deductions ; see to what they 'mount : 270 

How much of other each is sure to cost ; 
How each for other oft is wholly lost ; 
How inconsistent gi-eater goods with these ; 
How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease : 
Think, and if still the things thy envy call, ^h 

Say would'st thou be the man to whom they fall :' 
To sing for ribands if thou art so sill}-, 



ESSAY ON MAN. 49 

Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. 

Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life ? 

Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife. 280 

If parts allure thee, tliink how Bacon shin'd, 

The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind : 

Or, ravish'd with the whistling of a name, 

See Cromwell damn'd to everlasting fame I 

If all, united, thy ambition call, 285 

From ancient story, learn to scorn them all. 

There, in the rich, the honoured, fam'd, and great. 

See the false scale of happiness complete I 

In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay, 

How happy those to ruin, these betray. 290 

Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows, 

From dirt and sea- weed, as proud Venice rose ; 

In each how guilt and greatness equal ran, 

And all that rais'd the hero, sunk the man ; 

Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold 295 

But stain'd with blood, or ill exchanged for gold 

Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease, 

Or infamous for plundered provinces. 

O wealth ill-fated I which no act of fame 

E'er taught to shine, or sanctify'd from shame : 300 

What greater bliss attends their close of life ? 

Some greedy minion, or imperious wife, 

The trophy'd arches, story'd halls invade. 

And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade. 

Alas I not dazzled with their noon-tide ray, 305 

Compute the morn and ev'ning to the day ; 

The whole amount of that enormous fame. 



50 ESSAY ON MAN. 

A tale, that blends their glory with their ihame ! 

Know then this truth (enough for man to know) 
'' Virtue alone is happiness below." 310 

The only point where human bliss stands still, 
And tastes the good without the fall to ill ; 
"Where only merit constant pay receives, 
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives ; 
The joy unequall'd, if its end it gain, 315 

And if it lose, attended with no pain : 
Without satiety, though e'er so bless'd. 
And but more relish'd as the more distress'd : 
The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears. 
Less pleasing far than Virtue's very tears : 320 

Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd, 
For ever exerc.s'd, yet never tir'd ; 
Never elated, while one man's oppress'd ; 
Never dejected, while juaother's bless'd, 
And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 

Since but to wish more virtue is to gain. 

See the sole bliss Heav'n could on all bestow 1 
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know : 
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind. 
The bad must miss, the good untaught will find ; 330 
/Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, 
But looks through nature up to nature's God: 
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design, 
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine; 
Sees, that no being any bliss can know, 335 

But touches some above, and some below ; 
Learns, from this union of the rising whole, 
The first, last purpose of the human soul ; 



ESSAY ON MAN. 51 

And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, 

All end, in Love of God^ and Love of Man. 340 

For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, 

And opens still, and opens on his soul ; 

Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfin'd, 

It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. 

He sees, why nature plants in man alone 345 

Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown : 

(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind 

Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find) 

Wise is her present ; she connects in this 

His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss ; 350 

At once his ovm bright prospect to be blest, 

And strongest motives to assist the rest. 

Self-love thus push'd to social, to divine, ■ 

Gives thee to make thy neighbour's blessing thine. 
Is this too little for thy boundless heart ? 355 

Extend it, let thy enemies have part ; 
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense, 
In one close system of benevolence : 
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, 
And height of bliss but height of charity. 360 

God loves from whole to parts ; but human soul 
Must rise from individual to the whole. 
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, 
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake ; 
The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds, 365 

Another still, and still another spreads ; 
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace, 
His country next, and next all human race ; 
Wide and more wide, the o'erflowings of the mind 



52 ESSAY ON MAN. 

Take every creature in, of every kind ; 370 

Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest, 
And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast. 

Come then, my friend, my genius, come along, 
O master of the poet, and the song ! 
And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375 

To man's low passions, or their glorious ends, 
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise. 
To fall with dignity, with temper rise ; 
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer 
From grave to gay, from lively to severe j 380 

Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease. 
Intent to reason, or polite to please. 
O I while along the stream of time thy name 
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame ; 
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, 385 

Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale? 
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose, 
Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes, 
Shall then this verse to future age pretend 
Thou wert my guide, philosopher and friend ! 390 

That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art, 
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart ; 
For wit's false mirror held up nature's light ; 
Show'd erring pride, whatever is, is right ; 
That reason^ passion, answer one great aim ; 395 

That true self-love and social are the same ; 
'^ That virtue only makes our bliss below ; 
And all our knowledge is, ourselves to knoio ? 



i 

4 



THE 

UNIVERSAL PRAYER. 



DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO. 



FATHER of All ! in ev'ry age, 

In ev'ry clime ador'd, 
By saint, by savage, and by sage, 

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord I 

Thou Great First. Cause, least understood 

Who all my sense confin J 
To know but this, that Thou art good, 

And that myself am blind ; 

Yet gave me, in this dark estate, 

To see the good from ill ; 
And, bindin^j nature fast in fate, 

Left free the human will. 

What conscience dictates to be done. 

Or warns me not to do. 
This, teach me more than hell to shun, 

That, more than heav'n pursue. 

What blessings thy free bounty gives, 

Let me not cast away ; 
For God is paid when man receives, 

T' enjoy, is to obey. 
5* 



54 UNIVERSAL PRAYER. 

Yet not to earth's contracted span, 
Thy goodness let me bound, 

Or think Thee Lord alone of man, 
When thousand worlds are round : 

Let not this weak, unknowing hand 
Presume thy bolts to throw. 

And deal danmation round the land, 
On each 1 judge thy foe : 

If I am right, thy grace impart, 
Still in the right to stay ; 

If I am wrong, O teach my heart 
To find that better way. 

Save me alike from foolish pride, 

Or impious discontent. 
At aught thy wisdom has deny'd, 

Or taught thy goodness lent. 

Teach me to feel another's wo ; 

To hide the fault I see : 
That mercy I to others show. 

That mercy show to me. 

Mean though I am, not wholly so, 
Since quicken'd by thy breath ; 

O lead me, wheresoe'er I go. 
Through this day's life or death. 

This day be bread and peace my lot : 
All else beneath the sun, 

Thou know'stif best bestow'd or not, 
And let thy will be done. 



ODE ON SOLITUDE. 55 

To Thee, whose temple is all space, 

Whose altar, earth, sea, skies ! 
One chorus let all being raise I 

All nature's incense rise ! 



ODE ON SOLITUDE * 

HAPPTl the man whose wish and care 

A few paternal acres bound, 
Content to breathe his native air, 
In his own ground. 

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, 

Whose flocks supply him with attire : 
Whose trees in summer yield him shade. 
In winter, fire. 

Bless'd, who can unconcern'dly find 

Hours, days, and years slide soft away, 
In health of body, peace of mmd, 
Quiet by day ; 

Sound sleep by night ; study and ease, 
Together mix'd ; sweet recreation ; 
And innocence, which most does please* 
With meditation. 

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; 

Thus unlamented let me die ; 
Steal from the world, and not a stone 
Tell where I lie. 

* This was a very early production of Mr, Pope^ written 
when he was about twelve years old. 



THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL. 
ODE.* 

I. 

VITAL spark of heavenly flame I 

Quit, O quit this mortal frame ! 

Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying 

O the pain, the bliss of dying I 

Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife, 

And let me languish into life. 

II. 

Hark ! they whisper ; angels say, 

Sister spirit, come away. 

What is this absorbs me quite 1 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight, 

Drowns my spirits, draws my breath ! 

Tell me, my soul, can this be Death ? 

III. 

The world recedes ! it disappears I 
Heav'n opens on my eyes I my ears 

With sounds seraphic ring : 
Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly ! 
O Grave ! where is thy victory ? 

O Death ! where is thy sting ? 



* This ode was written in imitation of the famous Sonnet 
of Hadrian to his departing soul. See Hadrian's Sonnet, 
let. 4, ofhetters to and from Mr, Steele, &e. Vol. iv. 



NOTES. 



Universal Prayer.] IT may be proper to observe, that 
some passages in the preceding Essay, having been unjust- 
ly suspected of a tendency towards fate or naturalism, the 
author composed this Prayer as the sum of all, to show 
that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated 
in piety ; that the first cause was as well the Lord and 
Governor of the universe as the Creator of it ; and that 
by submission to his will, (the great principle enforced 
throughout the Essay,) was not meant the suffering our- 
selves to be carried along by a blind determination, but 
the restmg in a religious acquiescence, and confidence full 
of hope and immortality. To give all this the greater 
weight, the poet chose for his model the Lord's Prayer^ 
which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to his 
paraphrase. 

EPISTLE I. 

Ver. 150. Then nature deviates^ &c.] " While comets 
move in very eccentric orbs, m all manner of positions ; 
blind Fate could never make all the planets move one and 
the same way in orbs concentric ; some inconsiderable ir- 
regularities excepted, which may have risen from the mu- 
tual actions of comets and planets upon one another, and 
which will be apt to increase, till the system wants a refor- 
mation." Sir Isaac NewtorCs Optics^ quest, ult. 

Ver. 182. Here with degrees of swiftness^ there of force.] 
It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that, in 
proportion as they are formed for strength, their swiftness 



NOTES. 

IS lessened ; or as they are formed for swiftness, their 
strength is abated. 

Ver. 213. The headlong lioness J The manner of the 
lions' hunting their prey in the deserts of Africa is this : 
At their first going out in the night-time, they set up a 
loud roar, and then listen to the noise made by the beasts 
in their flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the 
nostril. It is probable that the story of the jackal's hunt- 
ing for the lion, was occasioned by observation of this de- 
fect of scent in that terrible animal. 
EPISTLE II. 
Ver. 204. The God within the mind.'\ A Platonic phrase 
for conscience ; and here employed with great judgment 
. and propriety. For conscience either signifies, specula- 
tively the judgment we pass of things upon whatever prin- 
ciple we chance to have ; and then it is only opinion, a 
very unable judge and divider. Or else it signifies, prac- 
tically, the application of the eternal rule of right, (re- 
ceived by us as the law of God,) to the regulation of our 
actions ; and then it is properly conscience, the God, (or 
the law of God,) loithin the mind, of power to divide the 
light from the darkness in this chaos of the passions. 

Ver. 270. — the poet in his museJ\ The author having 
said, that no one would change his profession or views for 
those of another, intended to carry his observation still fur- 
ther, and show that men were unwilling to exchange their 
own acquirements even for those of the same kind, con- 
fessedly larger, and infinitely more eminent in another. 
To this end he wrote, 

What partly pleases, totally will shock, 
I question much, if Tolland would be Locke^ 



NOTES. 59 

But wanting another proper instance of this truth, when 
he published his last edition of the Essay, he reserved the 
lines above for some following one. 

EPISTLE III. 

Ver. 68. Than favour'd man by touch ethereal slaini] 
Several of the ancients, and many of the orientals since, es- 
teemed those who were struck by lightning as sacred per- 
sons, and the particular favourites of heaven. 

Ver. 173. Learn from the birds^ what food^ &c.] It is 
a caution commonly practised among navigators, when 
thrown upon a desert coast, and in want of refreshment, 
to observe what fruits have been touched by the birds ; 
and to venture on these without further hesitation. 

Ver. 174. Learn from the beasts^ &c.] See Pliny's 
Nat. Hist. 1. viii. c. 27, where several instances are given 
of animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by 
their own use of them ; and pointing out to some opera- 
tions in the art of healing, by their own practice. 

Ver. 177. Learn of the little nautilus.'\ Oppian 
Halieut. 1. i. describes this fish in the following manner : 
They swun on the surface of the sea, on the back of their 
shells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship; they 
raise two feet like masts, and extend a membrane between, 
which serves as a sail ; the other two feet they employ as 
oars at the side. They are usually seen in the Mediter- 
ranean." 

Ver. 283. ^Tivas then the studious head, &c.] The po- 
et seemeth here to mean the polite and flourishing age of 
Greece : and those benefactors to mankind, which he had 
principally in view, were Socrates and Aristotle ; who, of 



60 NOTES. 

all the pagan world, spoke best of God, and wrote best of 
government. 

Ver. 303. For forms of government let fools eontest.Ji 
The author of these lines was far from meaning that no 
one form of government is, in itself, better than another, 
(as, that mixed or limited monarchy, for example, is not 
preferable to absolute,) but that no form of government, 
however excellent or preferable in itself, can be sufficient 
to make a people happy, unless it be administered with in- 
tegrity. On the contrary, the best sort of government, 
when the form of it is preserved, and the administration 
corrupt, is most dangerous. 

EPISTLE IV. 

Ver. 6. G'erlQolCd^ seen double.'] O'^erloolc'd by those 
who place happiness in any thing exclusive of virtue ; seen 
double by those who admit any thing else to have a share 
with virtue 'n procuring happiness ; these being the two 
general mistakes that this epistle is employed in confuting. 

Ver. 100. See godlike Tarenne.] This epithet has a 
peculiar justness ; the great man to whom it is applied 
not being distinguished from other generals, for any of his 
superior qualities so much as for his providential care of 
those whom he led to war : which was so uncommon, that 
his chief purpose in taking on himself the command of ar- 
mies seems to have been the preservation of mankind. In 
this godlike care he was more distinguishably employed 
throughout the whole course of that famous campaign in 
which he lost his life. 

Ver. 110. Lent heaven a -parent, &c.] This last in- 
stance of the poet's illustration of the ways of Providence, 
the reader sees, has a peculiar elegance ; where a tribute 



NOTES. 61 

©f piety to a parent is paid in a return of thanks to, and 
made subservient to his vindication of, the great Giver 
and Father of all things. The mother of the author, a 
person of great piety and charity, died the year this poem 
"vvas finished, viz. 1733. 

Ver. 123. Shall burning Etna^ &c.] Alluding to the 
late of those two great naturalists, Empedocles and Pliny, 
who both perished by too near an approach to Etna and 
Vesuvius, while they were exploring the cause of their 
eruptions, 

Ver. 193. Honour and shame from no condition rise — 
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.'\ What pow- 
er then has fortune over the man ? None at all ; for as her 
favours can confer neither worth nor wisdom ; so neither 
can her displeasure cure him of any of his follies. On his 
garb indeed she hath some little influence ; but his heart 
still remains the same. 

Fortune in men has some small difF'rence made, 

One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade. 

Hut this difference extends no further than to the habit; 

the pride of heart is the same, both in the flaunter and 

Jluiterer, as it is the poet's intention to insinuate by the use 

of those terms. 

Ver. 281 , 283. Jf parts allure thee Or ravish'd with 

the whistling of a name."] These two instances are chosen 
with great judgment ; the world, perhaps, doth not afford 
two other such. Bacon discovered and laid down those 
principles, by whose assistance Newton was enabled to 
unfold the whole law of nature. He was no less eminent 
for the creative power of his imagination, the brightness 
of his conceptions, and the force of his expression : yet be- 

3 



62 NOTES. 

ing legally convicted for bribery and corruption in the 
administration of justice, while he presided in the supreme 
court of equity, he endeavoured to repair his ruined for- 
tunes by the most profligate flattery to the court : which, 
from his very first entrance into it, he had accustomed 
himself to practise with a prostitution that disgraceth the 
very profession of letters. 

Cromwell seemeth to be distinguished in the most emi- 
nent manner, with regard to his abilities, from all 
other great and wicked men, who have overturned the 
liberties of their country. The times, in which others 
succeeded in this attempt, were such as saw the spirit of 
liberty suppressed and stifled, by a general luxury and 
venality ; but Cromwell subdued his country, when this 
spirit was at its height, by a successful struggle against 
court oppression ; and while it was conducted and 8up» 
ported by a set of the greatest geniuses for government the 
world ever saw embarked together in one common caus6. 



[As some passages in the Essay on Man have been sus- 
pected of favouring the schemes of Leibnitz and Spina* 
ztty or, as Mr. Warburton says, in his note on the Uni- 
versal Prayer^ of a tendency towards Fate and Natural- 
ism ; it is thought proper here to insert the two follow- 
ing Letters, to show how ill-grounded such a suspicion 
is. — These letters are not in any London edition.] 



^r. Pope to the younger Racine> a celebrated French wri" 
ter^ occasioned by his animadversions on his Essay on 
Man, in a poem called Religion. 

London, Sept 1, 1742. 
Sir, 
THE expectation in which I have been for some time 
past, of receiving the present you have honoured me with, 
was the occasion of my delaying so long to answer your 
letter. I am at length favoured with your poem upon 
Religion ; and should have received from the perusal of 
it, a pleasure unmixed with pain, had I not the mortifi- 
<cation to find, that you impute several principles to me,* 



*'The following lines, cant. 2. 1. 92 — 97, are probably 
alluded to. 

*' Sans doute pu*a ces mots, des bords de la Tamise 
Quelque abstrait raisonneur, qui ne ee plaint de rien, , 
Dans sonflegme Anglican repondra, Tout est bien. 
Le grand Ordonnateur dont le dessein si sage, 
De tant d'etres divers ne forme quun ouvrage, 
Nous place a notre rang pourorner son tableau," 



64 POPE TO KACINE. 

whicli I abhor and detest. My uneasiness met some alle- 
viation from a passage in your preface, where you declare 
your inability, from a want of knowledge of the English 
language, to give your own judgment on the Essay on 
j^fan.t You add, that you do not controvert my tenets, but 
the evil consequences deducible from them, and the max- 
ims which some persons of notable sagacity have imagined 
that they have discovered in my poem. This declaration 
is a shining proof of your candour, your discretion, and 
your charity. I must take leave to assure you. Sir, that 
your acquaintance with the original has not proved more 
fatal to me, than the imperfect conceptions of my transla- 
tors, who have not sufficiently informed themselves of my 
real sentiments. The many additional embellishments, 
which my piece has received from the version of M. D. 

R , have not done an honour to the Essay on Man 

equal to the prejudice it has suffered from his frequent 
misapprehension of the principles it inculcates. These 
mistakes, you will perceive, are totally refuted in the 
English piece, which I have transmitted to you. It is a 



t M. Racine, in an advertisement perfixed to his an- 
swer to M. Rousseau's letter against the Free-thinkers, 
speaks thus : *' N'ayant pas le bonheur de pouvoir lire 
dans r original les ouvagres de M. Pope, le plus celebre 
poete que 1' Angleterre ait aujourd' hui, je ne pretens pas 
attaquer ici ses veritables sentimens, dont je ne puis etre 
certain. Je ne pretens attaquer que ceux qui sont de- 
venus si communs parmi nous depuis la lecture de son 
Essai sur V Homme., dont les principes n'etant pas assez 
developes pour nous, sont cause que pluiseurs personnes 
croyent y turouver un system, qui n'est peut-etre pas 
elui de 1' auteur." 



RACINE'S ANSWER. 65 

critical and philosophic commentary, written by the 
learned author of the Divine Legation of Moses. I flatter 
myself that the Chevalier Ramsay will, from his zeal for 
truth, take the trouble to explain the contents of it. I 
shall tlien persuade myself, that your suspicions will be ef- 
faced, and I shall have no appeal from your candour and 
justice. 

In the mean time, I shall not hesitate to declare myself 
very cordially, in regard to some particulars about which 
you have desired an answer. 

I must avow then openly and sincerely, that my princi- 
ples are diametrically opposite to the sentiments of Spi- 
noza and Leibnitz ; they are perfectly coincident with the 
tenets of M. Paschal, and the Archbishop of Cambray ; 
and I shall always esteem it an honour to me, to imitate 
the moderation with which the latter submitted his pri- 
vate opinions to the decisions of the church of which he 
professed himself a member. I have the honour to be, 
&c. A, POPE. 



Mr. Racine's Answer to Mr. Pope. 

Paris, Oct. 25, 1742. 

Sir, 

THE mildnesa and humility with which you justify 

yourself is a convincing proof of your religion ; the more 

so, as you have done it to one on whom it is incumbent to 

make his own apology for his rash attack upon your cha- 

6* 



66 RACINE'S ANSWER. 

racter. Your manner of pardoning me is the more deli- 
cate, as it is done witliout any mixture of reproach. But 
though you acquit me with so much politeness, I shall 
not so easily forgive myself. 

Certain it is, a precipitance of zeal hurried me away. 
As I had often heard positions, said to be yours, or at least 
consequences resulting from your Essay, cited against 
certain truths, which I now find you respect as much as 
myself, I thought I had a right to enter the lists with you. 
The passage in my preface was extorted from me by a 
degree of remorse, which I felt in writing against you. 
This remorse. Sir, was awakened in me by the considera- 
tion that the greatest men are always the most suscepti- 
ble of the truths of revelation. I was really grieved to 
think that Mr. Pope should oppose a religion, whose ene- 
mies have ever been contemptible ; and it appeared 
strange, that in a work which points out the road to hap- 
piness, you should furnish arms to those who are industri- 
ous to misguide us in the research. 

Your letter, at the same time that it does honour to 
your character, must bring a blush in my face, for having 
entertained unjust suspicions. But, notwithstanding this, 
I think myself obliged to make it public. The injury 
which I have done you was so, the reparation should be 
the same. I owe this to you, I owe it to myself, I owe it 
to justice. 

Whatever may be said in your favour in the commen- 
tary you have sent me, it is now rendered unnecessary by 
your own declaration. The respect which you avow for 
the religion you profess, is a sufficient vindication of your 



RACINE'S ANSWER. 67 

doctrine. I will add, that, for the future, tliose among us 
who shall feel the laudable ambition of making their 
poetry subservient to religion, ought to take you for their 
model ; and it should ever be remembered, that the great- 
est poet in England is one of the humblest sons of the 

church. 

I am, &c. 



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